Texas mass shooting: ‘Since 2009… 274 shootings, 1,536 killed,’ says US group

A mass shooting in Texas on Tuesday that killed 19 children increased pressure on US lawmakers to act on gun violence. But it also raised the gloomy prospect of little or no change.

It was the ninth mass shooting this year, according to the Everytown gun control group. It occurred 10 days after another 18-year-old massacred 10 African Americans at a supermarket in New York.

However, nearly 10 years after a gunman massacred 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and four years after 17 people were killed at a Florida high school, restrictions on gun purchases and ownership have remained largely intact.

“I had hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this, again,” a distraught President Joe Biden said as he led national mourning. Thereby, vowing to overcome the US gun lobby and find a way to tighten gun ownership laws.

“Another massacre… an elementary school. Beautiful, innocent, second, third, fourth graders,” he said. “I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage.”

Guns of all varieties, notably high-powered assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns, are now cheaper. They are more widely available than they have ever been in the United States.

The all-too-familiar disputes over weapons, public safety, and rights revived with the news of Tuesday’s horrible shooting.

Nonetheless, statistics reveal that gun violence has a high national cost.

Historic increase in gun deaths

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that the number of gun deaths increased by a “historic” amount in 2020.

In addition, the United States had 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020. It is up over 35% from the previous year. There have been 24,245 gun suicides. It is up 1.5 percent.

The firearm homicide rate in 2020 was the highest in a quarter-century, with 6.1 deaths per 100,000 people.

According to Everytown, mass shootings have also increased.

“Since 2009, there have been 274 mass shootings in the United States, resulting in 1,536 people shot and killed and 983 people shot and wounded,” the group says.

The country is overflowing with firearms. Approximately the two decades from 2000, US firearms manufacturers produced over 139 million guns for the commercial market. Also, the country imported another 71 million.

This includes high-powered assault rifles, which start at $500, and 9-millimeter pistols, which start at $200. They combine ease of use, great accuracy, and semi-automatic triggers.

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